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  • Writer's pictureSylvain Lupari

BROEKHUIS, KELLER & SCHONWALDER: Live @ Dorfkirche Repelen 2 (2008)

Updated: Mar 13, 2021

In the end, it's a very good album full of surprises and a lot of modern and creative Berlin School

CD 1 (73:52)

1 Lanes of the Lord (15:31)

2 Moers Part I (10:09)

3 Rock This! (8:45)

4 Source of Life (7:30)

5 Moers Part II (9:29)

6 Shiauliai (12:08)

7 esreveR oloS (10:19)

CD 2 (72:19)

1 Return to the Beginning (16:27)

2 Deeper Silence (13:48)

3 Klaus, Where Are You? (14:36)

4 Another Magic Moment (14:54)

5 Cut & Paste (9:06)

6 Raughi's Song (3:27)

Manikin MRCD 7088

(CD/DDL 145:11) (V.F.)

(Tribal New Berlin School)

After the successful Live @ Dorfkirche Repelen, Broekhuis, Keller & Schönwälder is doing it again with a double cd this time, merging concerts gave at the same place, but in 2007 and 2008. The first CD contains the performance of January 20th, 2008, whereas the 2nd one includes bits of 2006 and 2007 concerts. Always accompanied by Raughi Ebert on guitars and Thomas Kagermann on violins, the Berlin trio still offers minimalism electronic music which is enhanced by the predominance of the violins. A diversified music where the Berlin School is the first fruits to beautiful melodies which branch off in the vagaries of improvisation.

Kangerman's violin is the soul of Lanes of the Lord. The longest track of CD1 begins in a nebulous ambience stuffed of synths with eerie breaths which agonize among the stammering of electronic percussions. A suggestive bass line is twisting with percussions beneath unctuous breezes of synth pads. A minimalism melody pierces these misty pads on a more swaying bass, Tablas percussions and a desolate violin. Lanes of the Lord embraces then an Oriental structure with a jerky sequential approach, giving a hopping pace to a throbbing track where the violin makes drag its melody with a poetic heaviness. A fine sequence, à la Robert Schroëder opens Moers Part I, a little jewel of minimalism art which grows harmoniously beneath superb orchestral arrangements, floating synths with penetrating choirs which recall Klaus Schulze's universe. The rhythm starts pounding with a hopping sequential movement which is accompanied by an oneiric violin which stretches its laments among mellotron choirs and flutes. A track that lets all the place to Kagermann! Rock This! supports pretty well the meaning of its title with a hopping sequence girdled by a guitar with expressive solos. A curled sequence surrounds a rhythm which gets more powerful whereas the beat becomes straightforwardly more rock with good guitars solos from Raughi Ebert. Source of Life is a splendid ode to reverie. String instruments shape a heavy temporal waltz to which are adding a virtual choral and an acoustic guitar, accentuating even more repressed emotions. A track modeled on a good Mike Oldfield track, but to avoid if the soul is gloomy cause tears could easily surf on this splendid melody. Moers Part II continues this softly quest with a strange virtual mermaid which casts her voice in a slinky mellotron. Guitar notes embrac